


Language of Love

by ami_ven



Series: Soul-Name [2]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-28
Updated: 2014-02-28
Packaged: 2018-01-14 01:18:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1247326
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ami_ven/pseuds/ami_ven
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everyone is born with their soul-mate’s name on their wrist— but not all of them can read it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Language of Love

Miko Kusanagi was five years old before she could read the name on her left wrist. It was written in letters of the English alphabet, straight across from left-to-right, in the Western style.

Hers wasn’t the only soul-name written in English, she knew from listening to the other girls in her class talk. They thought she couldn’t hear them, half-hidden behind a giant textbook, and Miko never corrected them.

But even once she could read the five strangely-simple letters on her wrist, Miko was no closer to finding her soul-mate. She read dozens of books, histories and genealogies, research papers and old records, to no avail. It seemed that nowhere on the planet, past or present, had there ever been anyone named Ladon.

*

Ladon Radim had known all his life that he was a freak— a defect, an accident, a mistake. Because where a normal, healthy Genii had a name marked on his wrist, Ladon had… gibberish. There were two elegant symbols, one on top of another, along the ridge of his small arm bone, right over his pulse point.

The other boys insisted that he couldn’t be a _real_ Genii if he was broken like that, and most of the time, Ladon thought they must be right. But sometimes, when he was on the surface and he could look up at the stars, he wondered if maybe, just maybe, there _was_ someone out there for him.

*

In high school, Miko took her first physics class and fell madly in love. What did it matter that the name on her wrist would never belong to anyone, when her heart so irrevocably belonged to science? She took as many different classes as she could, before returning to her first love, physics, and continuing through to a PhD.

She had job offers from nearly everywhere, but there was only one that really caught her eye. Perhaps she was being ridiculous, taking a job with so little information— it was surely a remarkable opportunity, given how highly classified it was. But even more ridiculous was the small part of her that hoped that being in an English-speaking country, she might have a better chance of finding her soul-mate.

But she tried not to think of that very often, because she was a scientist, now, and she did not believe in such things. Much.

*

Like every other Genii his age, Ladon joined the military. Unlike the others, he was never very good at blindly following orders. But is lack of personal loyalty to individual leaders meant that his career, mediocre as it was, survived the rapid changes of power without incident.

Then the Lanteans came, the Earth people, and woke the Wraith. For a long time, the Genii leadership was in chaos, and to Ladon, it seemed that all he could do was try to keep his head above water. But when everything had settled, the outcast with no soul-name found himself as the highest-ranking officer in the Genii military.

And he had a few ideas.

*

When Miko walked through the wormhole to Atlantis, she had no idea what to expect. It was exciting and terrifying, both at the same time. But the moment she stepped foot onto the Ancient City, she felt like she was coming home. Atlantis didn’t light up for her the way it did for Major Sheppard, but it seemed to recognize her all the same.

Then the city rose from the ocean and it seemed that they were constantly in motion. Miko didn’t realize how much she had changed, how far she’d come from the timid scientist who had left Earth only a year earlier, until they re-established contact with the Milky Way.

The newest recruits who had arrived on the _Daedalus_ were supposedly the best in their fields, but Miko found them ridiculous, self-absorbed and worse, incredibly reckless. Finally, she’d had enough. Summoning up her best scowl, Miko told them to get out of her lab, and not come back until they had stopped being stupid.

She thought everyone else had left, but when she returned to her desk, she found a chocolate bar sitting on her keyboard, and grinned.

*

Ladon knew that the Genii could not continue with the Lanteans as their enemies. Cowen and Kolya had been too stubborn to ally with any other power, let alone the people who controlled the City of the Ancestors. But Ladon had no such problems. As soon as he thought it would be accepted, he sent a message to Atlantis, asking to meet.

Finally, after promising to come with only a few aides and all of them completely unarmed, he was allowed to visit the city, where Dr. Weir met him, smiling. Before they began negotiations, she offered to take him on a tour of the city. He would only see the least sensitive places, Ladon knew, but he eagerly accepted.

It was a beautiful and impressive city, and Ladon tried not to gawk like the simple farmers the Genii pretended to be. Colonel Sheppard and Dr. McKay stayed with their group, looking suspicious, and he didn’t blame them. He would have done the same in their place, of course, and since his immediate goal was a peace treaty, not a full alliance, he had time to earn the Lanteans’ trust.

As they turned into another corridor, Ladon saw a petite woman in a Lantean science uniform coming out of a side room. She changed direction quickly enough to avoid colliding with Dr. Weir, but the huge stack of papers in her arms was not so lucky.

“Oh, no!” she cried, as paper went flying all over the hallway.

“It’s all right, Dr. Kusanagi,” said Weir. “We’ll help you pick them up.”

“Accidents happen,” Sheppard agreed. “C’mon, McKay.”

Ladon knelt to help, too, then frowned at the piece of paper in his hand. It was covered in… gibberish, the same kind of symbols, in neat vertical columns, as the ones on his wrist.

“Dr. Kusanagi,” he said, more sharply than he intended, and she looked up at him, eyes wide behind her glasses. “Is this writing?” he asked, more softly, holding out the paper.

She ducked her head, looking away, as she took it. “It is just my notes. Nothing important.”

Ladon frowned. “No, no, these symbols. They mean something? They’re words?”

“It’s called Japanese,” said Weir. “The language used in the country where Dr. Kusanagi grew up.”

He knew it was rude not to look at Weir while she was speaking, but he couldn’t bring himself to look away from Dr. Kusanagi. “So it is a language,” he said. “Could you… would you try to read something similar for me?”

The scientist nodded, slowly. “Yes, of course.”

Radim got to his feet and held out his left hand to pull Dr. Kusanagi up, too. Without letting go of her hand, he turned his wrist over and rolled up the sleeve of his jacket, pulling away the scrap of cloth he had wrapped around it.

“Can you read this?”

*

Mink gasped. She could read the two symbols very well, but she had never expected to see them like this, here in the Pegasus Galaxy, on the wrist of the new Genii leader.

“It says—” she began, then stopped and cleared her throat. “It says ‘Miko’. It is a name. It is _my_ name.”

There was silence for a moment.

“Your name?” he said. He sounded as stunned as Miko felt. “It’s really a name?”

“Yes,” she replied, softly. He was still holding her hand, his fingers warm around hers. “In Japanese _kanji_.”

The man huffed out a laugh. “The doctors all said it was a defect. That _I_ was a defect. But it’s a name!” He looked at Miko and smiled, softly. “ _Your_ name.”

“Mr. Radim,” said Dr. Weir, sounding confused. “Ladon—”

“You are Ladon?” Miko interrupted. Normally, she would never have been so rude, but this time, she didn’t even notice. She reached for the Velcro of the brace covering her soul-name and tugged it off, revealing the letters of his name on her own wrist.

“Miko,” breathed Ladon. He released her hand to cup both of his own around her face and pull her in for a kiss.

“Yes, all right, enough of that,” said Dr. McKay, after what seemed like forever, and not nearly long enough.

“Hey, let ‘em have their moment,” said Colonel Sheppard.

Ladon took a step back, but took hold of Miko’s hand again. “Dr. Weir,” he said, smiling. “I would be happy to finish our negotiations. But first, I hope you won’t mind letting me have some time alone with Miko. If she agrees, of course.”

“Yes, of course,” said Miko.

“Wonderful,” said Dr. Weir. “I think we can finish our tour later, then. Miko, perhaps you could take Ladon for a cup of tea? The mess should be empty, now.”

Miko beamed. “I would like that very much.”

*

They were married on the Genii homeworld. 

Miko wore her mother’s wedding kimono, bright red silk embroidered with golden cranes, but she had never felt more beautiful than the moment that Ladon, handsome in his dress uniform, had looked up at her like she was his every dream come true.

It was a blend of traditions— Japanese and Genii, with a few new Atlantian ideas mixed in— and Miko could not have imagined anything more perfect.

“History will always remember this day as the joining of our two peoples,” said Ladon, as they were announced for the first time as husband and wife. “But I think I’ll only be able to remember your beautiful smile.”

Miko laughed and kissed him, but of course, he was right.

THE END


End file.
